Debut novelist takes her time to arrive on Costa shortlist
AFTER a successful career as a chief engineer for Land Rover, Anne Youngson decided to change gear. At 70, she has become the oldest debut novelist to be shortlisted for the Costa prize.
Meet Me At The Museum, Youngson’s story of “late love and second chances”, is one of four first novels nominated for the award.
“There is a sort of myth you can’t get published unless you’re gorgeous and 25 – which I clearly challenge,” she said. “I’ve had a very fortunate life. I also explode the myth that you have to write out of misery, or that you need to have a terrible relationship with your parents, or a major tragedy.”
Youngson, who has three grandchildren, studied English at university but forged a career in the motor industry, becoming a chief engineer and then managing director of special vehicle operations for Land Rover.
She took early retirement at 56 and worked in consultancy before signing up for an MA in creative writing at Oxford Brookes University, close to her home. Keen to continue writing as a hobby, she began a PHD in creative writing at 67, and initially produced Meet Me At The Museum as a short story. Her tutor persuaded her that it was good enough to be a novel, and introduced her to an agent.
“I think I waited this long partly because of fear of disappointment. I had always enjoyed writing, and if I really tried to get published I might be disappointed, and that disappointment would stop me enjoying the writing.
“I’m quite competitive and failure is something I take quite hard,” Youngson explained.
However, she insisted: “I’m a confident person. I don’t want anyone to think I’m a shrinking violet.
“I was never backward in coming forward. I enjoyed my career and my life, although every time the going got a bit tough at work I did wish I could be sitting in a nice warm study somewhere making up stories.”
Youngson hopes that her story will be inspirational for other people who want to try writing late in life. “I find writing so therapeutic, a way to make sense of life, that I want other people to take up writing.
“And hopefully it can push more people towards publication,” she said, adding that she “can’t stop pinching myself ” after learning she had made the Costa shortlist.
Her book is about a relationship that blossoms via letters between an unhappily married farmer’s wife from Suffolk and a widowed museum curator in Denmark.
Youngson said: “I don’t tend to think about age, but having written this I realised that books which have characters who are towards the end of their lives rather than the beginning tend to be reflective – people looking back, recounting stories on their death beds.
“I feel there is a bit of a shortage of books with older characters who are still thinking about tomorrow. We all look forward. Even if you’re 96, you’re probably still looking forward. It’s a human need.”
The judges described her novel as “a warm and well-observed story of love in later life, unexpected friendship and the ties that bind”.
The Costa Book Awards have five categories, with the winner of each announced on Jan 7 and the overall winner on Jan 29.
The best novel category includes Normal People by Sally Rooney, a surprise omission from the Man Booker Prize shortlist earlier this year.